Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The Hill is tracking House Democrats' positions on health care reform legislation. According to the list developed by Hill staff, 37 staff members are a "Firm No, Leaning No, Likely No"; five are a "Firm Yes"; 17 are "Leaning Yes or Likely Yes; and 55 are undecided.

According to The Hill:

House Democrats not on this list are expected to vote yes. However, some members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who are not mentioned below have threatened to vote no unless the Senate's immigration-related provisions are changed.

All House Republicans are expected to vote no.

If every member votes and all GOP lawmakers vote no, the maximum number of Democratic deflections to pass a bill is 37, which would result in a 216-215 tally.

FreedomWorks has made it easy to contact the Blue Dogs. Click here, enter your phone number and FreedomWorks will connect you with one of the 13 representatives listed (you pick which one you'd like to call). Then you can report at the bottom of the Web site how your phone call went and compare with others' reports.

FreedomWorks also offers this brief list of talking points:

No Government Plan: Americans can't afford the trillions of dollars in new taxes that would be required to pay for Obamacare.

No Individual Mandate: Forcing people to buy insurance and then fining them or even putting them in jail if they don't is wrong.

No Tax Hikes: Tax increases to pay for a new government program will only slow economic recovery and keep unemployment high.